‘Argo’ wins film ensemble at SAG Awards

“Argo” went back-to-back this weekend, winning the Screen Actors Guild ensemble award Sunday, a day after taking the Producers Guild of America Award for top feature.

Helmer-star Ben Affleck told the aud at the Shrine Auditorium, “We had more than 150 actors. They spoke in English; they spoke in Farsi; and the one thing that they had in common was that they came to work every single day, whether they had a line or a look to somebody, or two lines or 10 lines, or a bunch of stuff I couldn’t understand in Farsi, and they wanted to “kill” it to make the movie better.”

The winner of the SAG ensemble trophy has matched the best pic Oscar winner in eight of the last 17 years. However, last year SAG voters selected “The Help” while the Oscar went to “The Artist.”

In other film categories, “Lincoln” took a pair of trophies for Daniel Day-Lewis as lead actor and Tommy Lee Jones for supporting actor. Jennifer Lawrence won the actress trophy for “Silver Linings Playbook” and Anne Hathaway won in the motion picture supporting category for “Les Miserables.”

Affleck said backstage that he had not expected to win so he hadn’t prepared an acceptance speech. “You have great films like ‘Lincoln,’ ‘Les Mis,’ ‘Silver Linings,’ so I was OK with it (not winning),” he said. “I feel like I’m lucky to have a job.”

On the TV side, it was a big night for laffer “30 Rock,” which is in its final season.

Alec Baldwin won an unprecedented seventh straight actor in a comedy series trophy while co-star Tina Fey won for female actress, ending Betty White’s two-year streak for “Hot in Cleveland.”

However the comedy ensemble kudo went to “Modern Family” for the third consecutive time. It topped “30 Rock,” “Glee,” “The Big Bang Theory” and “Nurse Jackie.”

Baldwin started his acceptance by saying, “Oh my God. This is ridiculous.”

He then thanked castmate Fey and the writers, adding, “It’s the end of our show, everybody’s sad about that. Greatest experience I’ve ever had.”

Claire Danes won the female actor award for TV drama series for “Homeland” and Bryan Cranston took the male actor trophy for “Breaking Bad.” “It’s good to be bad,” Cranston quipped upon arriving onstage.

“Downton Abbey” copped the drama series trophy over “Boardwalk Empire,” which had won the past two years. Phyllis Logan accepted the award for the ensemble. “We were so not expecting this. Oh! Shut the French windows, honestly.”

Day-Lewis, who won his third SAG award, had been widely viewed as a favorite to win. “Have no doubt that this was an ensemble award,” Day-Lewis said in his acceptance.

Lawrence took the stage with a big thank-you to MTV. “I earned my SAG card when I was 14. I did an MTV promo for ‘My Super Sweet 16.’ And I remember getting it in the mail and it being the best day of my entire life, because it officially made me a professional actor, which put me in the category with all of you.”

Julianne Moore won the actress award in the movie/miniseries category for “Game Change” and Kevin Costner took the male actor kudo for “Hatfields & McCoys.”

SAG-AFTRA co-presidents Ken Howard and Roberta Rearson gave a joint address, noting that this was the first awards show since SAG and AFTRA members approved merging in March.

“Hello Mr. President,” Howard said to Day-Lewis. “I couldn’t resist.”

Reardon said,” “This is the newest strongest union for entertainment and media.”

Also during the ceremondy, SAG honored Dick Van Dyke with the lifetime achievement award.

Earlier in the evening, SAG award stunt ensemble trophies to the film “Skyfall” and the series “Game of Thrones.”

The entire SAG-AFTRA membership of about 150,000 was eligible to cast ballots. Actors constitute the largest branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with 1,289 out of 6,663 active members, or about 20%.